Such Great Heights
by Ellyrianna
Summary: Come down now, but we'll stay. Squffie.


**Such Great Heights**

_let's stay together, always_

"Will you...stay with me?"

There was a long pause in which Yuffie considered all of her options. She bent her head, resting it on top of her skinned knees, and half-closed her eyes so that the horizon she was staring at was blurred and grey. There was a storm approaching; the radio was already all static. Next to her, Leon had his back up against one of the rails that supported the roof over the porch. He was a bundle of sizzling nerves, radiating emotions that could have burnt Yuffie with their intensity.

She smiled a little, regained proper posture, hugged her knees. She looked at him and widened her smile, trying to calm his nerves. He was looking at her hopefully now.

"Sure," she said, sliding her hands back on the old, splintery wood and reaching one hand over so that it rested on Leon's foot. The mask of anticipation had left him now; all that remained seemed to be confusion.

"Why? You could do a lot of great things, Yuf," he said, turning his eyes towards the fast-darkening horizon. "Why would you want to stay with me? We've been through a lot together over the past few years now, I know, but why stay with me?"

Yuffie's smile, previously just a stretching of her lips for his benefit, now showed teeth -- it was real. "Baby," she said honestly, "I got nowhere to go unless you're there."

* * *

"Sora's done it," Aerith said quietly, her hands tightening on her cup of tea. The white flowers that had been painted onto the ceramic were very fitting for the girl who was holding it. "New wormholes. New worlds. Everyone's coming home...or we're going to meet them. Cloud and I are going to try and find them if they're lost, or confused, or just can't get to us."

Typical Aerith, Yuffie thought. Always wanting to help others.

"Anyone that wants to come with us," she said, addressing the group in front of her: Cid, Leon, Yuffie, and Cloud, "is obviously more than welcome." Aerith offered one of her famous, heartwarming smiles as a closing statement before standing and taking both herself and her tea over to Cloud. The two promptly retreated into the depths of the library.

Cid stood up, scratched briefly at his armpit like a gorilla, and then loafed off to some unknown hole that probably was composed entirely of booze and cigarettes.

Yuffie and Leon exchanged glances. Leon jerked a thumb over his shoulder, indicating that he was heading to an old, weather-and-Heartless-beaten gazebo that he had dug out of the weeds behind the castle. Yuffie jumped up from her crosslegged position on the floor to follow him, keeping close to his heels like a faithful dog.

In a way, she was, she mused with some dry humor that she had most likely picked up from Squall himself.

* * *

Leon laughed -- mirthless, harsh, kind of sad. Yuffie cringed a little.

"We've been such a crazy couple over the past few years, lots of people wouldn't be able to stand it," he started, still laughing a little. He ran a gloved hand through his long hair, still not meeting her eyes, looking towards the stormy horizon. "Thought you mighta just been sticking 'round with me because we were rouges ourselves...like you were looking for a kindred spirit, or something. I dunno. Whatever."

Classic Squall.

"Anyway. I just didn't want you think that I was expecting you to keep tagging around with me now. You've got chances, now -- to go back and try and find people you miss, friends, your family. Figured you might want to take a break from me -- as crazy as that sounds; who needs a break from me" -- his humor showing through, thin and strained; he was trying now, hard, to keep his feelings inside for the greater good -- "and, dunno, try something new."

Finally he looked at her, and all Yuffie saw in his eyes was an angry resentment of what he had convinced himself of: that she would leave him for a better offer.

"Well," she said slowly, edging closer to him and moving her hand from his foot to his knee, "what about you? Aren't you going to try and look for anyone?" She took a painful pause, staring stubbornly ahead, before saying, "Rinoa?"

He shook his head roughly, almost violently. "No," he said in a quiet voice that was heavy with conviction. "'I don't want anyone to regret this day.' Famous last words. I don't go around resurrecting the past. Done is done."

Yuffie smiled ruefully in spite of herself. "Good philosophy," she remarked off-handedly. Then, with a slight shake of her head to get her mind back on track, she continued, "If I wanna look for someone, I'll let you know." Leon, who had turned back to looking at the approaching storm, switched his gaze back to her. She heard the unspoken comment: _So you are planning on leaving me after all. _"I'll let you know," she pressed with a smirk, "so that you have time to pack before I put you on a ship with only the clothes on your back."

She was right up against his leg now, and her hand, which had been at his bent knee, snaked down his leg to where his hands were resting limply in his lap. Yuffie slid her gloved fingers in between his. Ever tactful, Squall looked at his hand with alarm, glanced up at her, opened his mouth, said nothing.

_My Squall, _she thought with a grin.

In lieu of saying anything about her impromptu hand-holding, Squall murmured just loud enough to be understood, "It's going to start raining" -- he took a deep breath, closed his eyes -- "now."

Sure enough, the sky, which had become more threatening by the second, opened up and unleashed a torrent of rain onto the small world of Hollow Bastion. Under the worn, protective eaves of the gazebo, both Squall and Yuffie were safe from its wrath, but the closeness to it, that they were mere inches away from getting soaked, seemed to create a sort of electricity in the air.

Yuffie looked over at Squall, who was, surprisingly, looking back at her. She offerred him a smile which he returned, if in its barest form.

"Hey, baby," she said softly, "you feeling this?" She motioned with her head towards the rain pounding down around them.

It took him a few seconds to reply, but when he did, it was with a slowly growing smirk. "I dunno," he said, and started to stand up. "Why don't you demonstrate?"

He was still holding her hand, and pulled her upright with a strong jerk. She popped up easily beside him and leaned in for a quick, chaste kiss that left him wanting more. Still, Squall decided to exploit their hand-holding further by pulling her out into the rain with him.

Yuffie could have objected or just released her hand -- it wasn't a deathgrip he had on her, afterall -- but she didn't. She let herself get soaked the minute she stepped away from the gazebo's caving roof just as he was drenched, because she would always follow him. To Yuffie, a place wasn't worth going to unless Squall was waiting there for her.


End file.
